Use CEO Interviews to Develop Response

We sometimes use the Q/A format interview to develop brand and feeling responses to the employer brand and CEO inside.

In this case we started with two questions: How do we get people to take a more serious look at this boutique consulting firm? And how do we get people to care about this company when all the competition looks so much alike?

We used the Q/A format interview is to introduce active and passive candidates to the soul of the business and get them inside the heart of the CEO. We wanted to improve their judgment and feeling responses – and begin to associate associate themselves with the company and people inside.

In this case, we had the CEO share views about mission, passion, vision, soul, heart, purpose and even meaning. We wanted to tease out their “true north” vision for the organization.

Why do this? Because many candidates research the company and CEO prior to applying – and most do (at least) prior to their first interview. Many CEOs aren’t able to clearly articulate their vision for the organization. And all to often, when a candidate searches for this type of information, they come up short. We use the CEO interview to fill in the gaps and provide the candidate with additional insights. Get the right “happily employed” person to stumble upon it and that might be enough to move them to reach out.

We rely heavily on interview questions, but we also use curated videos and biographies (when we can find them). We try to anticipate the questions potential candidates might have about each particular organization.

Generally, we use this type of CEO interview to help share personal views that potential candidates might care about, including: what innovation means to them, the importance of goals and a clear vision, innovation(s) in the field, and how to motivation and incentivize teams, build external partnerships and more.

We use this format to trigger a type of “brand response”. Our goal is to get a very specific target profile (usually only a few hundred or so people in any give regional market) to make a positive connection to the CEO and/or employer brand. We’re not focused on improving brand identity, or providing brand meaning or brand resonance. The goal is to create association and develop brand response.

Example:

CEO Interview (Q/A Format)

Object

Differentiate from competition

Challenge

Improve association and response

Goal

Category

We use this type of CEO interview to strengthen brand response and develop better judgment and
feeling responses to the employer and brand.

About TalentSum

TalentSum, a talent acquisition consultancy and best practices implementation firm, combines strategy, marketing, technology, sourcing and analytics to deliver work in a way that transforms how our clients attract, engage and hire their people.

We do this because we believe strategic talent acquisition creates a real competitive advantage for the business, supports the objectives of talent leaders, hiring managers and recruiting professionals, and can lead to highly engaged employees and high-performing cultures.